Duncan Smith
Dublin Fingal East · Labour Party · Ireland
“That is three separate roads that are all in one network and are all closed or heavily restricted because of these works happening at the same time. This is impacting thousands of existing residents, and will do so for a significant period. The works are happening and the homes are being built.”
“We have a very small wastewater treatment plant that has been there for 40 or 50 years and which serviced a much smaller town. It is currently being retrofitted and upgraded, but those works are being delayed.”
“I thank Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, for taking this debate late on a Thursday evening, on the last sitting day of this term. I would like to talk about the town of Swords in north County Dublin.”
“We do not have enough schools and we have a wastewater treatment plant that is absolutely buckling under the pressure. We welcome the houses. There were no mass protests about housing development in Swords. The majority of people who live there moved there, like myself, in the past 20 years and love living there.”
“I know you cannot make an omelette without cracking a few eggs, but there is a disconnect in the planning of these projects that is causing havoc in Swords. We have a massive issue with our bus network, from bus stops to bus services, and again, we do not have a rail link yet.”
“I thank the Minister of State for her response, which speaks to the issue I am raising. Again, she will sense the tone in which I am raising it. There is an awful lot happening and being built, but it is the co-ordination of these works that is the problem.”
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“This is causing huge discomfort to Fingallian's GAA club, other sports clubs and people who cannot open their windows in a wide radius from that wastewater treatment plant. The council and the Department are doing an awful lot, but there seems to be a gap in the co-ordination of these projects and the medium-term impact this is having on the quality of life for the people of Swords at this time. That is the point I am trying to get across.”
“That is three separate roads that are all in one network and are all closed or heavily restricted because of these works happening at the same time. This is impacting thousands of existing residents, and will do so for a significant period. The works are happening and the homes are being built. Some infrastructure is going in to allow for more building, but there is a huge impact on the quality of life. There will be inconveniences, there is no doubt about it, but this is having a huge impact. People are unable to get to work, college and school on time, and will face those restrictions for the foreseeable future. There are no or very few alternatives because of the way Swords has been designed over the years. On top of that, we have the wastewater treatment plant and the upgrade works which are long-delayed and taking a long time.”
“I thank the Minister of State for her response, which speaks to the issue I am raising. Again, she will sense the tone in which I am raising it. There is an awful lot happening and being built, but it is the co-ordination of these works that is the problem. If I could take just three examples from the Minister of State's response, we have the Sword's cultural quarter which is closed at the Seatown Road. That is one project. The Seatown Road is connected to the R132, which is an old dual carriageway that is down to one lane for the foreseeable future. That is two projects. That is connected to the Balheary Road, where we have the new water main going in to allow for 3,000 new houses. That is a third project.”
“We do not have enough schools and we have a wastewater treatment plant that is absolutely buckling under the pressure. We welcome the houses. There were no mass protests about housing development in Swords. The majority of people who live there moved there, like myself, in the past 20 years and love living there. We know we need houses and we need sustainable communities, but we cannot deliver this unless we deliver the infrastructure with it. I ask the Minister of State to have the Department of housing bring in some taskforce or infrastructure manager to monitor, lead and deliver what Swords needs at this point, whether it is a bus stop or a wastewater treatment plant. I do not believe there is a town as big as Swords anywhere else in the country that is undergoing a similar level of growth at this time.”
“We have a very small wastewater treatment plant that has been there for 40 or 50 years and which serviced a much smaller town. It is currently being retrofitted and upgraded, but those works are being delayed. I cannot get across to the Minister of State the smell in the town of Swords right now, particularly in the northern part of the town, because of the upgrading works on the wastewater treatment plant. This is something that has been recurring for years upon years. We need a wastewater treatment plant that is befitting a town of the size of Swords. We need the greater Dublin drainage project to come in for the wider Dublin area, but the people of Swords are suffering. We do not have our primary care centre yet and we do not have our bus service. Our MetroLink is ten years away and we have traffic gridlock.”
“I know you cannot make an omelette without cracking a few eggs, but there is a disconnect in the planning of these projects that is causing havoc in Swords. We have a massive issue with our bus network, from bus stops to bus services, and again, we do not have a rail link yet. MetroLink has begun and I believe it is coming, which I am happy about, but it is still ten years away and we have a town of 55,000 people which is getting larger. It is larger than Sligo town and Waterford city; it is absolutely huge. We need bus services, special education classes and some entity to co-ordinate this. It is beyond the county council's capacity, and the Department of housing and infrastructure needs to do this. Where this is currently hitting hard is in wastewater treatment.”
“I thank Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, for taking this debate late on a Thursday evening, on the last sitting day of this term. I would like to talk about the town of Swords in north County Dublin. It is the third largest town by population in Ireland, but it is still treated culturally like a small village with a few airport workers in it. I am not sure how familiar the Minister of State is with Swords, but it is absolutely massive and is undergoing huge change. There is a massive amount of housing being built in Swords, which is welcome. It is all types of housing, from apartment blocks to three- or four-bedroom housing, and it is coming at scale. Unfortunately, the infrastructure is not coming with the housing. We are currently gridlocked with traffic due to multiple upgrades and works being carried out.”
“If the Government was really serious about education, it would do something to enforce the 2017 circular on affordable uniforms rather than just talk and hope that schools bring it in. The study published this month by the Irish League of Credit Unions, ILCU, found that 59% of parents said covering back-to-school costs is a financial burden and more than one in four is going into debt. That should be the wake-up call that this Government needs that whatever measures it believes it is taking are nowhere near good enough and that parents and families are struggling. We say we have a free education system when, in fact, we do not. There are huge inequalities. There are haves and have-nots and if you are a have-not in this country, you feel it in many different ways and one way you feel it is in access to and the ability to enjoy education.”
“You have had your moment. We have put this motion down in July 2026, at a time of relative plenty. While over the past number of years things have been brought in to attempt to relieve the burden on parents and families in relation to school costs, this Government has continued, almost by stealth, to squeeze families in relation to the cost of education. State examination fees continue to go up. School transport fees continue to go up under this Government. The cost of ancillary services, energy, insurance and waste services, which all impact on school and education, continue to go up while the supports that parents rely on, like the double child benefit payment or energy credits, are gone. These are all under this Government. Again, it is a squeeze - a stealth tightening - on parents and families in relation to education.”
“Maybe the charge against Sinn Féin is that it has its best ideas in the South because its record in the North in education is nothing short of disastrous.”
“I welcome to the Gallery former councillor Peter Coyle, a great servant to the Labour Party and Fingal local government for 20 years. I thank Deputy Kenny for bringing forward this motion on behalf of the Labour Party and the majority of Deputies for their contributions to this debate today. I have to qualify that thanks as a couple of the Sinn Féin contributors chose to take a narrow, decontextualised view of Labour’s own record in education. To focus that lens on Sinn Féin, which held the education brief in Northern Ireland for 16 years, it was a time of multi-annual budget cuts, multiple fee and state exam increases and, indeed, redundancies of teachers and support staff. The charge made against us was that we have our best ideas in opposition.”
“I raise the lack of ASD classes in my constituency in Fingal, the youngest and fastest growing area of the country. Towns like Swords, Donabate and Portmarnock have ASD classes at primary school level, albeit they are vastly oversubscribed and there are huge waiting lists, but in Malahide there are no ASD classes in any of the primary schools. When Sam’s dad emails my office asking where his son is going to be able to go to school to get an education in an ASD class, I have no answer for him because there are no classes in his town. Frankly, in this day and age, that is not good enough. I am asking the Minister to go to the Minister for education and the Taoiseach and ask if they can work to provide an emergency ASD class – at least one but preferably more – for a town the size of Malahide and, where needed, all over the country.”
“Crucially, we can never return to the normalised violence of the last century. Moving, removing or maintaining any border on this island can never come at the price of a human life. We in the Labour Party want a new united Ireland and we are unapologetic about that, but, vitally, we want to see real, deep and difficult preparatory work get under way. The conversation is happening. To ignore it now is irresponsible and impossible. The Government, as a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, has to play a leading role in this. The welcome work of the Taoiseach's shared island unit has been positive, but the time has come for more substantial preparations for change. This Bill, calling for a citizens' assembly and a Green Paper, sets out a roadmap for preparation that we can all support.”
“There needs to be a conversation about how best we build a real republic across the island, not just built on the values of equality and pluralism but acting on those values and seeing them through in a way that delivers ordinary people. The Ireland of 2026 is no longer one of the orange and green. It is home to mixed identities across these islands and beyond, identities that would have seemed unimaginable only a couple of generations ago. I believe that is something to be celebrated and protected, not just from those who would pull us backwards to a regressive and narrow vision of Irishness or Britishness, but from the risks that an unprepared and rushed unity debate would pose to that pluralist Ireland. As we progress towards unity, we cannot allow ourselves to be drawn back to the lazy destructive binaries of the past.”
“We all know the Ireland of 2026, North and South, has changed deeply from that of 1998. It is a vastly more diverse and more pluralist society. It is larger in population terms, with larger economies, North and South. It is more engaged and intertwined with the rest of the world. In many ways, it is a less equal society, with regional inequality growing significantly, North and South, since the Agreement. As our economies have grown, too many of our citizens have continually been left behind. That is not an experience unique to this island over the past number of decades, but we have a unique opportunity to correct our course with the opportunities of a new Ireland.”
“It almost goes without saying that what is in play in this debate is not taken lightly. The deep questions that are in play when it comes to constitutional change get to the very heart of who we are as a people, how we want to live and what shape our country and society will take. These questions are, of course, shaped by history, deeply held identities and people's lived experience over the last century, North and South. We should always be sensitive and understanding to those realities. These are profoundly forward-looking questions of the future. The conversation about Irish unity cannot be some hide-bound debate about an Ireland of the last century. It must be focused on a new Ireland that is not just united but is equal and fair for all its citizens.”
“We need our Government to take the lead on these discussions and to be the responsible broker needed for the necessary preparations to take place. It is time for the difficult work of preparing for unity to begin in earnest. We have seen the perils of running a referendum hastily. To proceed without the hard work of planning and debate would be deeply misguided. That is precisely why it is so important that we begin the process now of preparing for a united Ireland. We need a clear timetable to allow for the development of green and white papers, to allow the work of citizens' assemblies to take place and to allow for the conversations and debates that need to happen across our island. The measures in the Bill are to be very much welcomed as common sense steps towards a responsible and structured process of preparation.”
“The decade since Brexit has seen the question of unity moving up the public agenda. That is a reality that has perhaps ebbed and flowed over those years, but it is crystal-clear that it is not going away. In May, an Amárach poll from European Movement Ireland indicated that if a referendum on a united Ireland was held tomorrow in the EU, 59% in the Republic would vote in favour and 22% against, with 62% in favour in the North and 29% against. The prospect of a Nigel Farage-led government in London after the next UK general election, today's theatrics notwithstanding, would shift the parameters yet again. We have heard calls to simply ignore the issue. Last year, the UK Secretary of State told us there was no appetite for constitutional change in Northern Ireland, but putting our heads in the sand is simply not an option.”
“This is a welcome Bill and our thanks go to Sinn Féin for bringing it forward for discussion. It is not just a timely opportunity for the House to discuss the fundamental issue of Irish unity, but a chance for us and the Government to finally get serious on the important work of preparing for constitutional change. It has been clear for some years that not moving forward with urgency just will not cut it. There is a job of work to be done and this Bill sets out a path for beginning to get that work under way. A Green Paper, a constitutional convention and proper cross-community consultation, North and South, are all steps we in the Labour Party have repeatedly called for over recent years, as it has become increasingly clear that this conversation is happening with or without the Government taking the lead.”
“We need to include services and, unfortunately, the arguments that have been put forward against that have not been strong enough in our view.”
“The argument against has been, as I said, so flimsy in terms of including services and, as Deputy Murphy outlined, we all know the reason. It is because we are bowing to pressure from the Americans. Of that, there is no doubt. It was correspondence from ambassadors, letters from senators and congresspeople. Ultimately, that is the reason. Quite frankly, it is not good enough and does not recognise the will of the Irish people in relation to this Bill. They recognise what it can do and also recognise what it cannot do. The Irish people have been far ahead of this Chamber in terms of this issue, the illegal Israeli settlements, the apartheid regime and the genocide in Gaza and they want to see us bring forward as strong a piece of legislation as is possible. That must include services. Including goods is good but it is not good enough.”
“I know that politically that came from an EU decision, however, technically it showed that such a ban could be delivered and implemented relatively quickly and easily. Second, I will come back to what Spain has done by banning the advertising of services in the Spanish market. When we brought this up at committee, the response that came back was very flimsy. We spent 30 or 40 minutes with the Minister talking about the Spanish language. We thought that this was not relevant. What language an ad is in is irrelevant. She also said that it came in through consumer legislation. That was the mechanism that Spain had; this is our mechanism. Hundreds of legal experts have backed our methodology to include services, to ensure we are fully compliant with international law.”
“To continue on from where we were left off at committee, by taking services out of the original Bill, we are essentially gutting it and watering it down. It is not just politicians on this side of the House saying that. Oxfam Ireland and a slew of very respected worldwide international organisations will say that this Bill has been watered down. Services make up 70% of the overall trade with the occupied territories. That trade, including financial services, tourism, tech and booking platforms, is a huge boon to the illegal Israeli settlements there and must be tackled. The Government has put forward a couple of arguments against doing that. One was that it would be technically very difficult, but that is a fallacy. We brought in goods and services bans for Russia after the invasion of Crimea.”
“We had a good discussion about this on Committee Stage. It is important to note on the floor of the Dáil that we would be an outlier in terms of this legislation compared with other countries that have progressed similar or related legislation. When Senator Frances Black started this process eight years ago, Ireland was a pioneer in introducing legislation in this area. We have since been caught up and overtaken by other European countries, such as Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway. They have combined the definition of Israeli settlements and postcodes. Why would we be an outlier in the growing group of states that are bringing forward similar legislation in terms of this definition?”
“The summer programme, previously known as July provision, remains in absolute chaos. We have parents and children still wondering whether they are going to get a service this summer. We have an email address and a phone number but we do not have answers. We would like a debate in this House at the earliest possible opportunity.”
“We now have a Bill which is going to have untold consequences in terms of the planning system. It is a template for when a Government is unhappy with a planning condition or decision of any local authority; it will just bring in some primary legislation. My colleague, Deputy Ahern, has articulated incredibly well the setting aside of the climate action Act. It is a huge concern. The DAA has brought us here, the squeaky wheel is getting the oil and it is going to have huge impacts on our planning system and on our climate.”
“They had done their due diligence when they bought their homes. They were told they were not going to be under flight paths. It turns out the wool was pulled over their eyes by the DAA and now they are being flown over every day and have no recourse. These residents are airport people. They understand aviation and the airport better than the vast majority of people in this House. They do not want the airport to fail or aviation to fail, but they want a bit of fairness. They want the DAA to act professionally. I am not even going to get into the point about good neighbours and bad neighbours because that has been well made. They want the DAA to act professionally but how the DAA has acted over the last number of years and under the previous leadership has been an absolute disgrace.”
“This was childish, ridiculous behaviour, totally unbecoming of any organisation, never mind a State agency with such strategic importance as Dublin Airport Authority. As for this whole thing that opposition to this is down to some NIMBYs in north County Dublin, we have to put that to bed as well. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae earlier was saying the airport was there before the residents. That is an absolute fallacy in terms of the reality of the situation. When it comes to aircraft noise, residents on an east-west trajectory were given insulation - some were - and the day the north runway opened, the planes took off and deviated 30% north and flew over Rolestown, Ballyboughal and other villages in north County Dublin which had seen big growth in housing and were not covered by noise insulation.”
“It is, however, a great weapon to throw at Opposition Members who have issues with this Bill: "You are anti-growth." We are not anti-growth. We are pro-climate, yes, but we are also pro-good planning. This passenger cap was brought in as a condition of the north runway through the planning system and it should have been dealt with and tackled through the planning system. The fact that it was not is not the fault of the planning authority or the planning system; the fault is squarely on the DAA. This semi-State organisation rented trucks with loudhailers to drive up and down Swords Main Street in front of Fingal County Council's office, saying, "Get rid of the passenger cap". They sent them down to Croke Park when Dublin were playing in the all-Ireland last year, the loudhailers going, "Get rid of the passenger cap".”
“The application was declared invalid by Fingal County Council, which said it failed to comply with various planning and development regulations and was misleading, inadequate and non-compliant with relevant regulations. In addition, DAA failed to ask for a series of pre-planning meetings with Fingal County Council. That is absolutely incredible for a planning application of that size and that import. By the way, it was not just about raising the cap; this was about 11 huge buildings, with tunnels under the aprons. It was a massive planning application. DAA put it in designed to fail because, ultimately, it wanted to get this matter here. It wanted to get its desires in the ear of the Minister on some amorphous definition of growth, which, as my colleague outlined, is difficult, almost impossible, to define.”
“The implication of this Bill is that Fingal County Council, the local planning authority, is in some way unable to deal with the complexities, the needs, the desires and the implications of Dublin Airport in a planning capacity, that this has to be taken out of the airport's control because it does not have the expertise or the professionalism to deal with it, that this has to be taken in centrally and that only the Minister can determine what is right for Dublin Airport. Nothing could be further from the truth. DAA, under previous leadership, has actively polluted its relationship with Fingal County Council. The planning application DAA put in in 2023 to raise the passenger cap was one of the largest planning applications ever submitted to Fingal County Council.”
“Last week the Minister accused the Labour Party and, by implication, myself of being anti-Dublin Airport and anti-growth. He knows me and the Labour Party better than that. This is a far more complex issue than he purports or presents it to be. I know where I stand on the airport, and my record stands up in terms of representing airport workers at all grades and all levels through the Covid pandemic and all the other difficulties. I want the airport to thrive but not at any cost. The values of the Labour Party, in terms of this Bill, are based on good planning and standing up for a good planning system.”
“We are debating Committee Stage amendments to the occupied territories Bill this evening. There could also be another committee meeting on Thursday morning to continue discussion on the Bill. However, the deadline for Report Stage amendments is tomorrow, Wednesday. I ask that the deadline for Report Stage amendments be moved to late Thursday or Friday if Committee Stage goes to Thursday, so that everything is in order and we are not rushing this Bill any more than it is already being rushed.”
“I ask that the Minister might at some stage provide an update on the HSE's engagement with the manufacturer in relation to this medicine. In the context of other issues that we raise in the Dáil, we sometimes can get a sense that a Minister or the Government do not quite get the issue or understand it. I do not think that is the case with rare diseases. The Minister and the Government understand the issue and the difficulties relating to it and are aware of what needs to be done. She will have our support if we are moving in the right direction. I hope that we do so. I hope that we can get the 180 days. I hope that people, especially children, with rare disease can get access to various novel medications that have been approved elsewhere as soon as possible.”
“While prostate cancer is certainly not a rare disease, I want to raise once again issues with accessing innovative medicines, which is certainly an issue that also relates to rare diseases. It comes down to access. It is the case that access to private medical treatment here can, in turn, grant access to medicines that one cannot get in the public system. The Minister will agree that this is utterly unfair. We accept the need for value for money, but we must demand equitable access to treatments. I reference Pluvicto, which is a medicine to treat men with metastasized prostate cancer. This is a matter I have previously raised with the Minister. The drug is not reimbursed by the HSE, yet a patient in, for example, the Mater Private Hospital can get access to it. The inequity is unacceptable.”
“I welcome the plan to a more structured approach of achieving a 180-day reimbursement decision. As the Marie Keating Foundation has stated, we must make the 180-day timeline a dependable standard as opposed to an aspiration. Ireland is now the only country in western Europe without a formal early access programme. We need to see the consideration and introduction of a compassionate early access programme. This is about recognising that for rare diseases, time is often not on the side of those with such diseases. In some cases, the earlier a medication is started, the more effective it can be in slowing illness progression down. The Minister has stated that she is working on this. We will support her in that regard.”
“We must work to create a similar process for the procurement of medicines, particularly rare medicines, which can be costly for states with smaller populations to procure. It has been well flagged to the Minister and to many of us here that the value-for-money or quality-adjusted life-year assessment needs to be looked at given the small number of patients with rare diseases, where there are treatments. Many innovative medicines struggle to meet this threshold. This needs to change. I welcome the recent announcement of a review into the reimbursement process. I hope this will consider my point regarding the quality-adjusted life-year assessment. Rare disease patients can wait up to 722 days for decisions to be made on orphan medicines. This is far above the European average.”
“Please help to ensure that the "National Rare Disease Strategy" becomes a reality for those of us who cannot afford to wait any longer and, by doing so, provide access to this life-changing treatment. The HSE drugs group needs to consider this medicine with the utmost urgency. The reality that Irish patients cannot access many novel and innovative medicines that other citizens across the EU can is a let-down coming into our EU Presidency. We believe the EU Presidency presents a clear opportunity for the Minister and for Ireland with regard to the procurement of medicines, particularly orphan and innovative medicines. During the Covid pandemic, the EU proved how effective the collective procurement of treatments can be through its procurement of Covid vaccines.”
“It was approved by the EMA in February 2024 and is available in many states across the EU. As yet, it is not publicly available in Ireland. An application was lodged here in August 2024. A constituent of my colleague Deputy Sherlock has told us that she and others are losing hope. People she knows have lost the ability to stand upright, to walk, to feed and dress themselves and to speak clearly. Just like those children with DMD, time is not on the side of those with Friedreich's ataxia. This person has said: I am not asking for special treatment - just the fair treatment that patients in Germany, Italy, and many other European countries already receive.”
“As a result, some young people living with DMD will unfortunately not be able to benefit from this very welcome decision. It would be good to hear from the Minister and the HSE senior leadership team as when the drug will be formally approved - that may have been done; I am not sure of the timelines - and when these families can expect this medicine. I will raise, as others have, Skyclarys and the treatment of Friedreich's ataxia, a rare neurodegenerative disorder that progresses very quickly, resulting in neurological decline, the loss of bodily function, mobility and independence, and ultimately death. Approximately 200 people in Ireland have Friedreich's ataxia. I know the Minister met some of them earlier this year. Skyclarys is the only approved treatment for this condition.”
“It is now imperative that those children get access to this drug as soon as is practicable. At the core of this fight was the sheer length of time it took for this medicine to be considered and to go through the assessment process for reimbursement following EMA approval. I am sure that all of us in this House, including the Minister, agree that the process needs to be reformed. Our health spokesperson, Deputy Marie Sherlock, wrote to the Minister more than a year ago about access to this medicine. While it might have been given approval faster than other medicines, it was still too slow, taking far beyond 180 days. This is especially so as it had been made clear that these children simply did not have time on their side.”
“We need to make progress to expedite the system and to ensure that we get the best drugs in the world into treatment programmes for people in this country who have rare diseases. I take this opportunity praise the families of those children living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Their tenacity in fighting for their children is unbelievably admirable and we are glad to have met so many of them in recent years. I acknowledge the work of Senator Teresa Costello and my colleague Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan, who has been steadfast in his work and advocacy for sufferers during all his time in the Dáil. I will also mention the former TD, Denis Naughten, who did a great deal of work over many years. I am so glad for those children living with DMD that the HSE drugs group has recommended reimbursement.”
“I welcome this opportunity to speak on rare diseases. I spoke on the issue in the previous Dáil. I do not think I have spoken about it in the current Dáil. It has been said many times that, although rare diseases are classified as rare, we all probably know somebody who has one because one in 17 people in the country, a total of 300,000 people, have a rare disease. It is a very difficult issue to talk about. The system to approve medicines in this country has been poor. It has resulted in medicines that are available to sufferers of rare diseases under the public system in other countries, including some medicines I will discuss in a few moments and that others have already mentioned, taking longer to get to the people who need them in Ireland. I know the Minister and her predecessor have worked to change that.”
“Our understanding is that Dublin Bus is now going to have to take 35 old EV and AX models in to busy routes in Dublin city centre while Go-Ahead Ireland is going to get 35 new electric or hybrid vehicles on less busy urban routes because Go-Ahead Ireland is failing to deliver a service on those routes. Air quality in Dublin city is one of the worst in Europe and this Government is forcing Dublin Bus to take old buses and disimprove that air quality. It is an absolute disgrace from top to bottom.”
“This Government and this Minister are all over the place on climate and not just the big level in terms of power generation and data centres, but right down to public transport. I do not accept that this Minister is new in the brief. He understands from his previous brief the importance of climate mitigation measures when it comes to transport. In the constituency we share in Donabate where there has been an awful lot of house building, we have only seen one new bus in the morning with no return bus in the evening. We have seen no movement on the four-track solution for the northern commuter line, which is the most congested commuter line in Ireland. My colleague, Deputy O'Donoghue, will attest to that. It is absolutely pathetic. I also want an answer in terms of what this Government is allowing to happen with Dublin Bus routes.”
“This Government admits that, at best, if everything goes in the right direction for it, it will get a 25% reduction in emissions. It is, quite frankly, embarrassing. What is this Government also allowing to happen? What is this Government allowing to be brought to the debate? It is allowing its own backbenchers to start to talk about nuclear power and bring that into the debate when so many other European states have either ended their reliance on nuclear power or are phasing it out. Italy, Germany, Lithuania, Belgium and Spain are all at different levels of either ending nuclear power or have pledged to reduce it. What is Ireland doing in 2026? We are going to bring nuclear power back in, so let us have a grown-up debate about it. It is absolutely pathetic.”
“This Government is going backwards with climate change. I commend Deputy Ahern on this motion and his commitment to bringing home to all the people of Ireland the impact that data centres are having not only on our climate but also on their household bills and the cost-of-living crisis. The UN has referenced us as a cautionary tale. Yet, does Ireland listen? No. When the tech bros call, this Irish Government jumps and asks, “How high?” Its amendment to the motion is absolutely embarrassing. It opens with the point that the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, states that we are moving in the right direction. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, did a media tour two weeks ago and admitted that we are nowhere near hitting our carbon reduction targets. He admitted it.”
“Those in opposition who are housing spokespeople and interested in this issue will understand that when it comes to regeneration projects because we know the complexities of it. Unfortunately, it seems those complexities are lost on the Department of housing. I am hoping that in the decision made in four to five weeks' time we will see common sense prevail, and that we will see a future not only for Oliver Bond but for other local authority complexes throughout Dublin city.”
“If we continue to hollow out Oliver Bond, Pearse House, Markievicz House and others, we will push families further out of Dublin city and hollow it out. Oliver Bond should not be one-bedroom apartments and studios. It should be one-bedroom, studio, two-bedroom and three-bedroom homes. The whole panoply of community should be allowed to live there for the next 90 years and beyond. It should not be about the bottom line all the time. We need more housing; we need copious amounts of it. We need thousands more one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom homes all over the country. A reduction of 28 units would have to be accounted for, but when it will deliver overall more family homes for a community that has been in Dublin for 90 years, and needs to be there for another 90 years and beyond, Dublin City Council will need to swallow that.”
“However, that investment stopped and has stopped for the past 20 years. Now, Oliver Bond receives attention through the media for poor living quality and poor health outcomes. What does this Government and the Department do? It turns its back on the plan of investment for Oliver Bond to ensure that the next five generations of families can live there because, ultimately, the bottom line is they will lose 28 units in an overall regeneration. Instead of talking about units, the Government should be talking about homes. Oliver Bond and other flat complexes that remain in Dublin city are the beating heart and the last vestige of a living city, such has been the hollowing out of the city for people to be able to live there.”